The barbaric death of four-year-old Daniel Pelka at the hands of his mother and stepfather affected everyone who read the reports of last week’s shocking murder trial.
Daniel was left looking like a 'concentration camp victim' after a sustained campaign of hatred. He was starved, force-fed salt, left so hungry he scavenged bins at school and ate Play-doh during lessons.
At home he was beaten so severely his arm was broken aged three. The violence continued. His mother held him under the bath water as a punishment, to the point of drowning. The fear he must have felt beggars belief.
In fact, that little boy’s miserably short life must have been spent living in utter terror of Mum and Dad - the very people a child looks to for love, security, safety, nourishing food, warmth, cuddles...a goodnight kiss. No goodnight kiss for Daniel, punched in the head and left to die alone in the dark.
As thoughts of his appalling life and death sank in, fury churned inside me. Waiting for the judge to deliver her verdict, I felt no sentence available could fit this crime.
In between reading news reports, I checked Twitter and Facebook and saw others - also stunned and outraged - calling for the death penalty. I began writing a similar post, then realised I couldn’t send it. Something didn’t seem right.
Instead, I waited. And I’m glad I did. Because I now realise it would have been wrong to join in, encouraged by the cries of 'hang em'.
I have always struggled with the idea of bringing back the death penalty. Like many others on this side of the argument, I’m struck by two major obstacles. Firstly, the simple inhumanity of putting another human to death. Secondly, there’s the risk that the accused is innocent - even our respected legal system is flawed from time to time.
But I freely admit that sometimes shock, anger and hatred get the better of me. I felt the same after the trial of the killers of Baby P. What possible reason could there be to spare their lives?
Those two reasons I gave against the death penalty just now certainly seem to go out of the window. Putting another human to death? What’s human about a parent who willingly, repeatedly, savagely attacks their own child, or stands by while another beats, tortures and starves them? Isn’t that inhuman? And the second reason, the risk of their innocence? The evidence here was simply overwhelming - we can safely be in no doubt that Daniel’s murderers were brought to justice.
There's no doubt that this fuelled the public hysteria which led to calls for the return of the death penalty, and I understand those feelings because I felt them too. But it's a fleeting hatred, borne out of the heat of the moment. Given time to consider, those two reasons against it come back stronger than ever.
Does that make me soft? Not really. Because what I've actually realised over the past few days is that death would be the easy way out.
Why do I think that?
It started with the proper sentence handed down by Mrs Justice Cox – who deserves a medal and a nation’s thanks. Daniel’s mother and stepfather will each serve a minimum of 30 years. Depending on the Parole Board’s decision after that, it could be even longer. It could even turn out to be a full life sentence.
'They will forever be looking over their shoulders'
Let’s imagine that. The rest of their lives spent in a cramped cell, usually 6ftx8ft. To those who complain prison life is ‘cushy’, seriously, how ‘cushy’ would a boxroom have to be before you’d happily consider spending at least 30 years inside it?
They’ll almost certainly spend that sentence in solitary confinement, given the constant risk of attack by other inmates intent on a gruesome revenge. I find it hard to believe that, even with the best efforts of prison staff, there will not be a successful assault on these two. They will forever be looking over their shoulders. I imagine even the prison warders will secretly reserve a special coldness towards the likes of them.
The crushing monotony of their new, isolated, lives will soon take its toll. And it might even be compounded by something that will no doubt surprise them. A conscience.
Every morning they will wake up and the first thing they will realise is that they are behind bars. And they will know why – Daniel. Hopefully they will be haunted by his gaunt, pale features every morning they wake, and every night as they go to sleep.
To those who hanker after the death penalty, think about this. What would you rather for these two monsters? Would you rather they were taken to a clinic to be sedated before being euthanized, silently, gently slipping away from the horrors they carried out. Or would you rather they spend day after day after day...forever trapped in this miserable, meaningless existence. Helpless, without hope, never certain they are safe from attack.
One of the most agonising insights into Daniel’s life was that he was regularly locked up in a tiny, unheated boxroom, with only a soiled mattress on the floor. It was the cell where he was kept prisoner. The doorhandle removed to prevent escape, the court heard how a tiny handprint was found in its place, where he’d searched for a way out.
It’s ok Daniel, it’s their turn now.